Thursday, July 30, 2009

diy fascinator

DIY Wedding Challenge: DIY Hair Flower

A simple and beautiful hair flower, for under $20! (community article)

I've seen hair flowers sell on etsy for over $80.00, and although they're gorgeous, that's just not in my budget.


This pretty creation will set you back $62.00 plus shipping. So here's my version of a hair flower, designed to match my earrings. And the total cost...$16.00.

Materials:

  • silk flower (mine is a peony-type)
  • feathers (optional)
  • fabric glue
  • small styrofoam ball, about 2" (I recommend using 'smoothfoam', which is more solid and is stronger than regular styrofoam)
  • Swarovski crystal beads or glass beads
  • faux pearl beads
  • flat-head straight pins (look in the jewelry aisle, they look just like sewing straight pins, but have a flat head on the top)
  • alligator hair clip
Instructions:

Remove the flower from the stem. If your flower is almost the size of your head like mine was, remove a few of the outer petals to make it smaller. Also remove any plastic pieces from the center of the flower. Glue the petals back together on top of each other, layering them by size.

If you're using feathers, trim them down to your desired size (longer for more feather goodness, shorter if you want them to be subtle) and glue them to the backside of the flower.

Then you can add the alligator clip on top of the feathers. I made sure the clip I bought had a large, flat surface so I could glue it to the flower.

While the feathers and clip dry, start working on the inside. Take one of the small styrofoam balls and cut in in half. Take a bead and thread it onto a flat-head pin. Cut the pin to a shorter length so it will stick into the half-sphere, but not out of the other side. Dip the pin in the fabric glue to ensure it stays put once you've stuck it into the ball.

Start arranging the beads in random order (or you can make a pattern if you like) by sticking them into the styrofoam. This will give you a 3-dimensional look once you add it to the center of the flower, which really shows off the sparkle.

Once you've covered the styrofoam, add a generous amount of glue to the bottom of the beaded ball, and stick it in the center of your flower.

And there you have it! A custom-made, one of a kind hair flower for under $20.00. Have fun with it...change the bead or feather colors to match your wedding colors, or even do a colored flower.